Behind the Scenes: Recording a Soundtrack to a Video Game

From the early bleeps and bloops of the 1980s to the symphonic soundworlds of today, video game music has developed hugely over the last 40 years thanks to advances in technology, and now orchestras form an essential part of this 21st-century genre.

In the summer of 2019, the LPO recorded the soundtrack to a brand new video game, and we went behind the scenes to ask: what do composers think about when writing for video games? Is composing for video games the same as composing for film? And how does the recording process work? Video game music features on the GCSE Music syllabuses of both AQA and OCR.

Explore more:

• Read about the evolution of video game music over the last 40 years, and how composers write for this genre, in this article from BBC Radio 3.
• There are more Creative Briefs to be found on our Watch, Listen, Learn page, where students can compose for silent choreography or for theatre scenes.